Types of missions?

[gunz 0]

What mission types are in P3 and Hitr?

[Bullethead 12]

What mission types are in P3 and Hitr?

 

Well, it rather depends on whether you're a scout or a bomber/recon type.

 

If you're a scout, most of your missions will be patrols looking for trouble. If you're Entente, most missions will be over eneny territory but usually no further out than the lines if you're German. Another common scout mission is bomber escort. Then you have airfield attacks, balloon-busting, and the odd scramble thrown in. Sometimes you also get ground attack missions. The mix of these things depends on when and where you fly.

 

If you're bomber/recon, most of your missions will be recon and arty spotting (amount to the same thing), usually at or near the lines. You also get bombing missions fairly often, and sometimes scrambles.

 

There's also something common to both that happens occasionally: moving to a new airbase. You have to be alive at the time the squadron historically moved to get one of these. It's just flying between 2 friendly fields, but of course you might meet the enemy en route.

[gunz 0]

Do scouts get alot of strafe/ballon busting/ bombing ground targets mission ? Because those interest me alot.

 

 

I've read that the British used to bomb German submarines, is that in the game by any chance ?

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

Oh, then you are going to love the DH5, gunz. A ground attacker's dream, and it's nearly bulletproof to boot.

 

.

[Javito1986 14]

Ha, I just did a balloon busting mission a few hours ago and just wrote about it over on Reports From The Front. Glad you like balloon busting! Me, not so much. I mean sure they're exciting but they're no good for one's lifespan and I'm protective of my pilots. Balloon busting is the #1 way to die in OFF as far as I'm concerned. Particularly on Realistic Survival Settings guidelines, because ground accuracy gets pumped up to 'Hard' to model those damn killzones they set up... .

 

Most scout missions are patrols. Offensive patrols, defensive patrols, combat air patrols. Then there's escort missions, they're pretty common. And dangerous. Going over the Line is fine because you're usually at high altitude and can pick your battles. But if your escorts get attacked you're obliged to help, no matter what the opposition is.

 

Lots of ground attack/strafing runs over No Man's Land.

 

Pay attention, going to give you some advice that'll save your virtual pilot. Watch your instruments on those strafing runs, many's the chap who takes one in the fuel tank and doesn't notice it until his engine dies 100 feet above the German trenches. Sometimes it happens while your side is shelling! That's always a good way to end the day.

Edited March 28, 2011 by Javito1986

[Bullethead 12]

Oh, then you are going to love the DH5, gunz. A ground attacker's dream, and it's nearly bulletproof to boot.

I think I should qualify this.... The DH5 definitely isn't bulletproof, but YOU are while flying it. No matter how horrific your crash, you always walk away unharmed (often into a POW camp, though). For instance, just this afternoon I went out strafing in the Passchendaele area. I've done this many times and it's been no big deal, ,maybe 2 or 3 MGs in the target area. They hit you a few times but you can usually cope with it aerodynamically, although your engine might pack in quickly. But this time I must have stumbled upon the main German redoubt in the trench system. There must have been 20 or so MGs in it and they all opened up at once, AFTER I was well within their range so I couldn't escape quickly. I've NEVER seen so many AAMGs in 1 place before--the sky was completely full of tracers. My trusty DH5 lasted a total of 5 seconds under their concentrated fire, at which point it lost various important parts. The tail went first, then at least 1 wing, then the screen went mostly red so I couldn't see much after that, except I think I caught fire, too. Anyway, looking throgh my tiny peephole in the otherwise red screen, it appeared that I did forward sommersaults into the ground from about 500 feet up, landing inverted. I walked away unharmed but was taken prisoner, and that's with it set for Dead is Dead. <BR><BR>Now, apart from such overwhelming numbers of bullets, the DH5 is pretty sturdy compare to other planes. For instance, I've destroyed more than 1 balloon by ramming it while swimming in the ground fire, and have safely returned to base. I've usually crashed on landing due to an inability to keep the thing level when it slows down, but any landing you can walk away from :) Edited March 28, 2011 by Bullethead

[Javito1986 14]

Wow Bullethead, I've never been so completely and utterly 'owned' in OFF before so I didn't even know all that stuff could happen when you get blown away. I'll be sure to stay at a decent altitude if I'm ever near Passchendaele

[Bullethead 12]

Wow Bullethead, I've never been so completely and utterly 'owned' in OFF before so I didn't even know all that stuff could happen when you get blown away. I'll be sure to stay at a decent altitude if I'm ever near Passchendaele

 

It was only the 2nd time for me. The first was soon after I got OFF and was flying a Fee in Bloody April. We'd just formed up and were heading for the lines, still at very low altitude, when the Ace Flight of Jasta 11 bounced us. At that time, I still had the original default settings in OFF so this was hyper-aggressive AI that was deadly accurate at 400m or more. Karl Almenroder chose me as a target. One moment I was doing a hard turn to the right to meet the attack, well beyond what I thought was effective range, and the next I was in a flaming nacelle sans wings and tail. As I tumbled down (the Fee in this condition doesn't pull enough G to black or red you out), I caught glimpses of most of my flight suffering similar fates. All this happened in practically the blink of an eye. That was like on my 2nd or 3rd sortie ever. What a welcome to OFF .

 

I'm not kidding, when I reviewed the mission, despite clicking on the "so and so of Jasta 11 hit an FE2b of RFC-20" as fast as I could, it still took like 10 minutes to get from the point the 1st of us was hit to when I hit the ground, which was about 5 seconds of game time.

[Olham 164]

We'd just formed up and were heading for the lines, still at very low altitude, when the Ace Flight of Jasta 11 bounced us.

At that time, I still had the original default settings in OFF so this was hyper-aggressive AI that was deadly accurate at 400m or more.

Karl Almenroder chose me as a target. One moment I was doing a hard turn to the right to meet the attack, well beyond what I thought

was effective range, and the next I was in a flaming nacelle sans wings and tail.

As I tumbled down (the Fee in this condition doesn't pull enough G to black or red you out), I caught glimpses of most of my flight s

uffering similar fates. All this happened in practically the blink of an eye.

That was like on my 2nd or 3rd sortie ever. What a welcome to OFF .

 

I'm not kidding, when I reviewed the mission, despite clicking on the "so and so of Jasta 11 hit an FE2b of RFC-20" as fast as I could,

it still took like 10 minutes to get from the point the 1st of us was hit to when I hit the ground, which was about 5 seconds of game time.

:rofl:

You made my day, Bullethead!

I guess, you didn't even mean this to be funny, but when I saw you with my inner eyes,

falling from the sky in your bathtub like Fee nacelle, I couldn' help but laugh out loud.

You are the right stuff - many other men might not have re-entered the sim after that.

Edited March 29, 2011 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

You made my day, Bullethead!

I guess, you didn't even mean this to be funny, but when I saw you with my inner eyes,

falling from the sky in your bathtub like Fee nacelle, I couldn' help but laugh out loud.

 

I thought it was pretty funny. Especially because I lived through it. I guess the nacelle came down in a treetop and thus the fall was cushioned. Only a couple weeks in the hospital. I decided right then that this pilot was going to have a few personality quirks as a result of his experiences. He's the one who ended up being a hopeless morphine addict in the Reports from the Front thread long ago

[Hasse Wind 46]

I've been seriously thinking of transferring my 1915 Quirk pilot to a Fee squadron in early 1916 after a stay in England. But the Fee is so ugly and has such awful characteristics that I'm having some doubts. And it would be an ignominious end to a fine career to fall down from the sky in a flaming bathtub.

[Bullethead 12]

I've been seriously thinking of transferring my 1915 Quirk pilot to a Fee squadron in early 1916 after a stay in England. But the Fee is so ugly and has such awful characteristics that I'm having some doubts. And it would be an ignominious end to a fine career to fall down from the sky in a flaming bathtub.

 

The Fee has better characteristics than the Quirk in many respects. It's stronger, faster, and more maneuverable, you can see where you're going MUCH better, and has IMHO the best forward-firing weapon in the game because you don't have to get perfectly lined up to shoot. Plus, it has the 2 essentials of any well-appointed cockpit: a pack of cigarettes and a pin-up photo of Mata Hari. The cigarettes are quite useful because they slide along this little shelf in front of you, making them a completely functional heads-up display slip indicator.

 

I've only been reduced to a flaming bathtub that one time. Most times, I don't lose any parts, just my engine dies. It might be on fire but it's behind me so I don't feel the heat and I'm too busy looking for a place to land to see if there is fire back there.

 

You should be reassured, however, that it's possible to fly the Fee even if you lose a lower wing. It takes about 5000 feet to get the thing out of the spin and leveled off, but it can be done. Problem is, you're stuck going around in a very big circle, gradually losing altitude, unless a strong crosswind happens to be blowing in just the right direction, If that's the case, then you can fly a reasonably straight line in approximately the desired direction until the wind changes. Normally this isn't the case, however, so you're stuck circling with the controls held all the way over as hard as you can. However, by relaxing just a bit on the enemy side of the circle, you can tighten that arc, thus getting through it faster, so you spend more time pointed towards home than towards Hunland. In this way, you can very gradually inch to the west. This will make a difference if you were just barely across the lines start with, but it's better than most other planes . Landing with 3 wings isn't much of a problem as far as speed, sink rate, and levelness go, but you don't have any real control over where you ultimately come down, so you have to hope for a smooth spot.

[Javito1986 14]

That reminds me of the Alb DIII flying with three wings that I saw yesterday. That was after he'd also been set on fire and managed to put it out. I was so impressed I called off my SE5s and let him be!

[Hasse Wind 46]

Okay Bullethead, you've convinced me to give the Fee a chance. I'll blame you if the worst happens and the bathtub inferno consumes my pilot. But first I need to survive the Quirk phase, then I'll have to choose the squadron that gets the Flying Abomination first. Should be fun.

[Olham 164]

The Fee is better than it's reputation here, Hasse Wind. You are an experienced pilot. So you will

quickly learn, how to handle her. I even fought MvR's Jasta 11 in one (didn't pick the fight though -

he did), and using shallow dives for gaining speed for tight turns, she behaved quite well.

 

One advice: if you are not a top shot on the MGs, let the gunner do that - he is really good at it;

while you will be much more helpful at the stick.

 

PS: MvR concentrated on another craft in that fight, but Karl Allmenröder chased us all the way

over the lines, and he shot quite a bit of fabric out of the kite, and then he killed the engine.

But we had crossed the mud and I could put her down in one piece.

[Lewie 7]

There's an online book about the British Fee Squadron RFC 100 where the writer talks about an adventure one crew had on a early winter's evening.

 

They had flown a late day sortie in deteriorating weather and were forced to land safely in a large field on the wrong side of the lines because of the lowering clouds and snow storm. They weren't sure at the time if they were over the front, but the assumption was made that this was true and they busied themselves with getting the Fee ready to take off again, before they were found and captured.

 

Luckily, at about that same time, the German Artillery nearby started up and helped them cover their own noises. This bought them a little time to get the kite turned around and prepare it to get started. But as they were about to prop the engine over, the guns stopped and a distant group of German voices were heard shouting from the murk and fog of the field's edge. They barely had time to finish getting the engine to start before the obs gunner had run around to the front of the kite and jumped on board just as his pilot had opened the throttle and they both just managed to clear out of there before being caught. They flew at at about 300~500 feet all the way across the front and had surprised a few German squads huddled in their trenches.

[Olham 164]

Hard to imagine, how anyone should be able to "jump into the cockpit" of a Fee???

They used ladders for that. But perhaps he was "fear-propelled"?

 

 

[Lewie 7]

Well so much for my paraphrasing the passage, I'm guessing the obs/gunner was hurriedly cambering and clawing his way onboard. Fees have that little ladder rung under the nacelle, and the wheels are handy

 

Edited March 31, 2011 by Lewie

[Bullethead 12]

The Fee is better than it's reputation here, Hasse Wind. You are an experienced pilot. So you will quickly learn, how to handle her

 

There's also the Survival in the Air guide on the beast, which I think is most excellent (plug, plug, plug)

[Javito1986 14]

Hard to imagine, how anyone should be able to "jump into the cockpit" of a Fee???

They used ladders for that. But perhaps he was "fear-propelled"?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that an actual photograph?

 

Obviously it is. I always get blown away when I see pics of WW1 in color. Black & White makes everything seem so remote, but seeing it in color makes it all so... alive!

[Olham 164]

Lewie, I have heard about a women in Canada, climbing all the way up onto a tall pine tree, when a bear was after her.

And she suffered from vertigo! Later she couldn't explain how she got up there at all. So I'm sure the gunner would get

into the cockpit somehow. It was just the "jumping" I would have found quite impressive.

[Wayfarer 5]

Obviously it is. I always get blown away when I see pics of WW1 in color. Black & White makes everything seem so remote, but seeing it in color makes it all so... alive!

 

Javito. I know exactly what you mean there. Looking at black and white pictures in books as a kid, I subconsciously set them in some dull, foggy, autumnish 'otherworld', which always seemed appropriate for WW1, somehow. Only when I was a little older did I appreciate that many of these scenes of death and devastation were taken on fine sunny spring/summer days - and it somehow didn't seem right that such things could be on 'real' days like that.

I think there is a part of my brain that still believes that people in 1914-18 could only see things in a slighly grainy, out of focus way! If you've seen the pictures of Vintage Aviator's FE2 flying, it always makes me wonder how it felt in those days, when these were the things that were clear and vital and ... NOW!

[Olham 164]

Sorry, Javito, didn't see your post earlier. I think it is an original b/w photograph, coloured_/retouched later.

Irritatingly, the guy standing in the cockpit left, looks like a twin of me in my younger days.

I found it in a forum; here is the link - there are more coloured pictures:

 

http://www.ww2aircra...ft-factory.html

 

And here are many coloured photos of WW1 planes, at "The Vintage Aviator":

 

http://thevintageavi...z/image/tid/136

Edited March 31, 2011 by Olham

[Bullethead 12]

Javito. I know exactly what you mean there. Looking at black and white pictures in books as a kid, I subconsciously set them in some dull, foggy, autumnish 'otherworld', which always seemed appropriate for WW1, somehow. Only when I was a little older did I appreciate that many of these scenes of death and devastation were taken on fine sunny spring/summer days - and it somehow didn't seem right that such things could be on 'real' days like that.

 

Actually, black and white film is a very recent invention. Color film came first. It's just that back when cameras were invented, the world itself really was grayscale, so that's what showed up on the color film. Over the last 150 years or so, however, the world gradually shifted into the full spectrucm of color we see about us today. This process wasn't uniform or constant. Certain parts of the world grew colors before others, and some of these places alternated between color and gray scale several times during the transitionary period. But eventually color spread everywhere, even to oil paintings several centuries old, which of course had originally been painted in grayscale tones to reflect the reality of that time.

 

This outbreak of color was very confusing to the people alive back then, especially to people in places where their surroundings were flashing between grayscale and color between different people taking photos. By the time of my childhood in the 1960s, however, most of the world was permanently in color, except for the insides of TV studios and certain 3rd World countries. It was about this time, too, that black and white film was invented. It was used for nostalgic purposes by those who missed the comfortable, less glaring grayscale world of their youth.

[Olham 164]

Boy, what a lovely story - why don't you write storybooks for kids, Bullethead?

I want to know, what happened next!!!

Let me guess, what you had today - Jack Daniels?